DISCOVERY BAY / Soldier in Iraq tried to ease dad's concern / Just before he died, he played down the danger he faced

Published 10:22 pm, Thursday, July 27, 2006

2006-07-27 22:22:46 PDT -- Even near the end, Army Spc. Joseph A. Graves didn't want his father worrying about the danger he could be in as a military police officer in Iraq.

"One of the last conversations I had with him was -- 'Aww Dad,' he says, 'There's a lot worse places in Iraq to be than here, so don't worry about me,' " Kevin Graves recounted Thursday in the living room of his Discovery Bay home on the eastern edge of Contra Costa County where his son grew up.

"I find out now that the route he was on was one of the most dangerous routes that they travel," Kevin Graves said. "That was Joey -- caring about my concern."

Joseph Graves was killed Tuesday when his convoy came under enemy fire in Baghdad, the Army announced Thursday. Military personnel described the attack as "a very well-organized ambush" on the convoy, Kevin Graves said.

Joseph Graves, 21, was driving one of the humvees in the escort convoy and was the only U.S. soldier killed in the attack, his father said.

Other than to say he was providing military protection, Joseph Graves gave few details about what he did in Iraq, for security reasons, his father said.

"He was actually protecting allies," Graves said. "Part of his job was privileged information. I don't really know. He would do road duty sometimes, guard duty sometimes. He would do typical military police stuff."

Graves was assigned to the 110th Military Police Company, 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, based at Fort Hood, Texas. He is one of more than 2,560 U.S. military personnel to have died in Iraq since the U.S. invaded in 2003.

"He definitely felt like he was serving a purpose," Kevin Graves said before displaying pictures his son had taken of waving Iraqi children. "He said, 'Dad, we're doing a lot over here. I know you guys don't hear about that, but we're doing a lot.' "

Joseph Graves saw the military police as a vehicle to achieve his goal of becoming an FBI field agent, and he asked his father to sign a waiver to allow him to join the Army at age 17, Kevin Graves said. After graduating from Liberty High School in 2002, he went directly into the Army.

About two weeks before being deployed to Iraq in November, he married his high school sweetheart, Cori Maningas.

"He's a regular kid," Kevin Graves said, smiling as he recalled his son being unable to fit all of his uniforms in his pack before shipping out to Iraq because it was crammed with a PlayStation2 video game consol, a DVD player, an iPod music player and stacks of videos.

"It was an honor to be his father," Kevin Graves said. "It was an honor to spend any moment with him."

He flipped fondly through dozens of photos his son had sent back from Iraq, before lingering on one of Joseph Graves in the driver's seat of a Humvee, an arm resting on the steering wheel.

"That's right where he was when they ambushed him," Kevin Graves said. He began to repeat it, but his voice welled with emotion, and he sat quietly for several long moments.